But in all else she was a Dane. Dane in her creed and her habits--
Dane in her intense and brooding imagination--in the poetry that
filled her soul, peopled the air with spectres, and covered the leaves
of the trees with charms. Living in austere seclusion after the death
of her lord, to whom she had borne a Scandinavian woman's devoted but
heroic love,--sorrowing, indeed, for his death, but rejoicing that he
fell amidst the feast of ravens,--her mind settled more and more year
by year, and day by day, upon those visions of the unknown world,
which in every faith conjure up the companions of solitude and grief.

Witchcraft in the Scandinavian North assumed many forms, and was
connected by many degrees. There was the old and withered hag, on
whom, in our later mediaeval ages the character was mainly bestowed;
there was the terrific witch-wife, or wolf-witch, who seems wholly
apart from human birth and attributes, like the weird sisters of
Macbeth--creatures who entered the house at night and seized warriors
to devour them, who might be seen gliding over the sea, with the
carcase of the wolf dripping blood from their giant jaws; and there
was the more serene, classical, and awful vala, or sibyl, who,
honoured by chiefs and revered by nations, foretold the future, and
advised the deeds of heroes. Of these last, the Norse chronicles tell
us much. They were often of rank and wealth, they were accompanied by
trains of handmaids and servants--kings led them (when their counsel
was sought) to the place of honour in the hall, and their heads were
sacred, as those of ministers to the gods.

This last state in the grisly realm of the Wig-laer (wizard-lore) was
the one naturally appertaining to the high rank, and the soul, lofty
though blind and perverted, of the daughter of warrior-kings. All
practice of the art to which now for long years she had devoted